CCB Magazine

Robert not Home Alone

Photo: © Jens Thomas

The Corona crisis has caused quite a stir in the cultural landscape, and only now is it slowly getting back on track. The events sector and the music industry in particular are still suffering. We paid a visit to the House of Music cultural hub in Berlin-Friedrichshain, which was founded in 2019, and asked: How has the music industry recovered?
 

Text Jens Thomas

The days when the subversive goings-on in the ruins of the R.A.W temple dominated events are over. The R.A.W site, centrally located behind the Warschauer Brücke in vibrant Friedrichshain, was for a long time a civic terror cast in concrete and asphalt. It was always colder there at night than outside, and inside the clubs it smelled of sweat. Today, in 2023, many things are different. Many a club still exists, but the fried food stalls at the entrance outbid each other in competition, and many a tourist now likes to get lost here. Only the colorful graffiti sprayed on almost every house wall is a reminder of the old days, which were already numbered back then.

In the midst of it all, somewhat secluded in the second row, stands the House of Music, a magnificent building, completed in 2019, which, based on a ruinous industrial hall almost 150 years old, appears as the new hope of the Berlin music industry. The building extends over three floors and an area of 4500 m²; over 1,000 people go in and out of here every day. It's a bundling and contact point for existing companies and projects such as the BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute), the noisy Rooms or the Music Pool Berlin - in addition, there are companies such as Yamaha, Drum Trainer Berlin or Mermande Sound. In 2019, they moved together from Warschauerstraße to the R.A.W site. Today, inside there are 23 rehearsal rooms, studios, DJ booths, an event area, plus seminar and training rooms, as well as exhibition space and an office floor.

Corona was the worst case for us. We were just about to get started. Then everything stopped

Shortly after its completion, in the fall of 2019, came Corona. At the time, the virus hit the music industry just as hard as it did the event sector. According to a survey by the Landesmusikrat Berlin (Berlin Music Council), as early as 2021, 29 percent of music professionals no longer saw any career prospects and were planning to change careers or had already done so - only one fifth were looking positively to the future. Today, the calendars of some performance venues are full again, but the halls often remain empty - with the exception of major events by Grönemeyer and consorts.

How does a hub like the House of Music recover from the crisis? On this day, we have an appointment with Robert Witoschek, a slim man in loose trousers, band shirt, a tattoo here and there. Witoschek is something of an all-rounder at the House of Music - he works at BIMM, at the same time at Berlin Music Pool, before that he worked as one of the owners at noisy Musicworld and has been involved in the whole development over the years. "Corona hit us hard," the music manager clarifies. "For us, it was the worst-case scenario at the time."In 2019, when the virus broke out, things were just getting started with the House of Music: "The construction work was finished, the concept was in place." In addition, a 30-year lease for the building had been negotiated.

Inside the house. Top: Cultural manager Witoschek, photo © Josephine Lass. Below: One of the conferences, photo © Jana Nita Raker.

"Suddenly everything came to a standstill and our figures plummeted by up to 70 percent in 2020," adds Mathias Uredat, Managing Director of noisy Musicworld GmbH. It was possible to save partial projects in the digital world - for example, the operation of the BIMM could be maintained. The concept is that no classically trained music teachers give lessons, but instead seasoned professionals refine the career - including drummers like Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. To be accepted, you already have to be a pro, but you'll receive further training in style, marketing, stage experience, etc. During Corona, sessions were simply held digitally. Other areas, such as the senate- and EU-funded advice center for musicians Music Pool Berlin, even saw growth as demand for public funding and Corona assistance increased. "Nevertheless, it was three years of existential fears," says Witoschek. But thanks to good ventilation systems, they quickly got a resumption permit. Areas such as catering and tour bus rental, however, would not have survived the crisis. "At some point, it simply no longer paid off."

In the meantime, the House of Music is back in regular operation. Maik, for example, a drummer, wants to rent a booth to practice that day. Another, Eric Eitel, is just on his way to his office - he works at Music Pool Berlin. The offices are small and simple, the practice rooms soundproofed. The acoustic concept for this was designed by Wilsing Wilson of Wax GmbH, a kind of franchise model for rooms - a second house is integrated into the building itself to keep out the noise from the outside world. Each individual room is also arranged like a free box, with no contact to the other rooms - inside you hear noise, outside you hear nothing.

Noise and soundproof: one of the rehearsal rooms in the noisy rooms. Photo © Jens Thomas

In the courtyard, on the other hand, scattered guests sit in the sun, inside people scurry around, in the front area stands a drum kit, next to it a staircase leads to the upper area, where the rehearsal rooms and offices are located door to door. One could call it the irony of fate that just now, when the halls for concerts are becoming fuller again, the demand for rehearsal rooms is also increasing, especially since rehearsal rooms in Berlin have been expensive and scarce for years anyway - ultimately the House of Music also benefits from this. Also, many concerts are currently being made up in the post-Corona era, and here and there a band books a room in order to be on stage the same evening. Best example: the band Pussy Riot, imprisoned in Russia for a long time, booked a room at the noisy Rooms the day after Russia invaded Ukraine. "Nobody here knew about that, though," says Witoschek. "We recognized our own rooms on TV in the evening."

Especially now that the venues for concerts are becoming fuller again, the demand for rehearsal rooms is also increasing. You could call it the irony of fate that the House of Music is benefiting from this

The House of Music is now entering its fourth year, and there are a few stories to tell here. It has survived the crisis, albeit with scars. It knows a thing or two about the change in the music industry, according to which 80 percent of revenues are now made through life events in many places, because it also profits from this. It has also increasingly developed into a central contact point; leading events such as the WISE Festival, Sample Music Festival or the German Song Writing Festival have found a new home here, and there are already plans for the future. For example, the House of Music Hamburg is currently being planned. "That will take another three or four years, but we're on it," says Witoschek. The experience gained in Berlin over the years is to be taken to the Hanseatic city - BIMM Hamburg already exists, where Sterne and Tocotronic musicians teach. Now the next steps are planned. In addition, one is already reasonably well positioned in terms of sustainability. A solar system is already on the roof, and if one is ever spent, it's on the house. It's no different at the nearby vegan sausage stands on Warschauer Brücke. Here, drinks are served in a continuous loop, and it's noisy anyway, with over 70,000 people strolling across the noisy Warschauer Brücke on a weekend evening. In the House of Music, on the other hand, you don't hear any of the noise. Here, the noise is moved into the booths, soundproofed, sealed off from the outside world. And when a song does go outside, it's often for this world - not infrequently even suitable for the stage and crisis-proof.

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